Ax in the Ceiling
by FaithinBones
Summary: Booth and Brennan come back from Los Angeles and find a suprise in their Mighty Hut.
1. Chapter 1

(The Suit on the Set)

This is for GalaxieGurl who is feeling a little down. I hope you like it.

This story is rated T for language.

I don't own Bones.

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They arrived back home from Los Angeles and found that things were not quite like they had left them. Driving up into the driveway, Booth was stunned to find that all the lights were on in their house and the front door was wide open. After he parked the SUV he stared at the front door. "Bones, stay here and let me check it out."

"No Booth, you need backup." Brennan wasn't about to let Booth enter their house without someone to watch his back. "I'll follow you in."

Worried, Booth shook his head and shifted on his seat so he could look straight at Brennan. "Bones, you have to stay here. If something were happen to both of us, Christine would be an orphan. Is that what you want? She's just a baby. She needs her mother."

Exasperated, Brennan glared at her lover and partner. "Booth, there is no way you are walking into that house alone. Christine needs her father too."

A slight smile on his lips, Booth reached out and cupped her face with his hand. "Okay, I'll call the police and wait for someone to come. When the officer gets here, you stay here and me and the officer will check out what's going on. Okay? It's a good thing Christine is still at Max's place."

"Alright." Brennan was relieved that Booth wasn't so alpha that he didn't know he needed backup. "That's an excellent compromise."

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Once the patrol car arrived and was parked in front of the house, Booth patted Brennan's knee and exited the SUV. Moving over to the patrol car, he waited for the officer to leave her car. After he flashed his FBI badge and credentials, Booth explained the situation. "We just got back from LA and found this when we arrived." Booth waved his hand at the lighted house. "The front door is open and all the lights are on. I haven't been inside. I thought it might be a good idea if I had some backup before I went in."

Officer Diehl shook her head. "I'm sorry sir. It would be better if you stayed out here while I looked around."

Booth quickly shook his head. "Without backup? I don't think so. I'm a Federal Agent. When you go in I'll go in as your backup. We have no idea what's going on and I don't think it's safe for you to go in there alone. That's why I called the police in the first place."

His words made sense and Officer Diehl was a sensible soul. "I'll lead, you follow." After she drew her gun, she held it down at her side and moved towards the front door. "Have you noticed any activity since you drove up?"

Following the officer to the front steps, Booth drew his gun and walked up the steps behind her. "No. It's been quiet."

Silently the officer entered the house and scanned the living room. Besides the lights being on, she didn't see anything out of place. As her gaze moved around the room, she saw something that did give her pause. Pointing, she glanced back at Booth. "Do you have any enemies?"

Stepping around her, Booth looked up and noticed an ax stuck in the ceiling. "What the hell?"

The sight rather bizarre, Officer Diehl decided that this break in might be dangerous after all. Cautiously, she entered the kitchen and saw a pristine room. Moving across the kitchen, she opened the pantry door and found a neat room filled with food and cleaning supplies.

While the officer checked out the kitchen, Booth checked the downstairs guest bedroom and the bathroom and found them both undisturbed. As he stepped back into the living room he met office Diehl who was glaring at him.

"Sir, I told you to follow me." The police woman was very annoyed at Booth.

A slight frown on his face, Booth shrugged his shoulders. "I'm a field agent, I know what I'm doing."

Unable to force Booth to comply, she pointed at the stairs that led to the man cave below. "Have you gone down there yet?"

Booth shook his head. "After you."

Officer Diehl walked over to the staircase and moved slowly down the steps with Booth following behind her. Once they were at the foot of the stairs, both of them couldn't fail but notice that someone had moved the furniture over to one of the walls and had used something to tear up the cement floor in the center of the room.

"Fuck!" Booth was furious. "I just finished remodeling this house three months ago. I can't believe this shit."

Curious, the officer moved closer to the hole and look down. "It's about four feet deep and three feet wide."

His anger unabated, Booth looked in the hole and shook his head. "My girlfriend and I bought this house through the U.S. Marshall's Auction. This house belonged to a convicted drug dealer."

"Oh, I see." Officer Diehl shook her head. "Looks like someone was hiding something in the house and they wanted it back."

"Great, just great." Booth shook his head. "Come on, let's look upstairs and see what else these assholes did to my house." Marching across the room, Booth stomped up the stairs and once he was in the living room he noticed Brennan standing in the front doorway. "Bones we're still looking. We need to check upstairs."

Brennan nodded her head. "Alright." Patiently she stepped out onto the porch and watched Booth and Officer Diehl move across the room and then upstairs to the second floor. After a while they came back down. "It's okay, Bones. No one is here . . . uh, they did make a mess downstairs in the man cave though."

Curious, Brennan walked under the ax stuck in the ceiling and pointed up at it as she walked towards the stairs to get a quick look downstairs. "This is noteworthy."

Unable to stop herself, the police officer laughed.

Rolling his eyes, Booth walked into the kitchen, grabbed a beer from the fridge and opened it. After he took a couple of swallows of the cold liquid, he placed the can on the counter, turned on the deck light outside and opened the back door. Once he was outside standing on the deck he scanned the yard and started to swear.

His loud cursing drew Officer Diehl outside to check on him. Stopping abruptly, she shook her head in wonder. "I wonder what they were looking for."

Booth counted six large holes in his back yard. "When I get my hands on the mother fuckers who did this I'm going to squeeze their necks until their heads pop off."

Drawn to the backyard by Booth's cursing, Brennan stepped outside. "It would appear that whoever dug the holes didn't know where to look for whatever they were looking for."

"No kidding." Booth trembled with anger. "I just finished working on this house for God's sake and now I have to fix a hole in our basement and get someone in here to help with the yard. I . . . damn it!"

Brennan walked over and placed her hand on her boyfriend's arm. "Booth, this is all fixable. Look what you did to make our house livable. They could have done a lot more damage than they did and it appears that they didn't take anything from the house as far as I can tell, which is kind of odd behavior for criminals."

Her hand on his arm and her soothing voice helped him to calm down. "Well at least they did it when we weren't around. This could have been a whole lot worse I guess."

Officer Diehl agreed with him. "You mentioned that you just got back from LA. They probably waited until they knew that you weren't going to be home and took their time searching for whatever it was they were looking for."

Calmer, Booth nodded his head. "Yeah. I guess, I better hire a contractor to come out and fix my basement and the back yard."

"Not to mention the ceiling." Brennan stepped over to the back door. "I want to send the ax to the Jeffersonian for fingerprints and possibly for DNA. Perhaps the criminals were stupid and left us a clue as to who they were."

Officer Diehl spoke up. "This is a Metro case, Ma'am. We'll probaby need the ax for evidence."

Brennan shrugged her shoulders. "I work for the Jeffersonian Medico-Legal Lab. It would be better if we have our techs handle this."

"Good idea, Bones." Booth followed Brennan back into the house, the officer following them. "If we find out who did this, I'm going to . . ."

"I hope you will contact the Metro police and let us handle it, Sir." Officer Diehl interrupted Booth.

Cautiously, Booth nodded his head. "Of course. That's exactly what I'll do."

Surprised, Brennan turned to face her boyfriend. "Really?"

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Let me know what you think of my story. Reviews are always appreciated. Thank you.


	2. Chapter 2

(After the Past in the Present)

This story was originally going to be a one shot, but I had numerous requests for more. I hope you like it.

I don't own Bones.

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Booth was a patient man. Most people that knew him forgot that about him. The agent had a short fuse and was prone to blow up when he was in a rage, but when he wanted to be, when he needed to be, he could be as patient at Job. That's what made him such a great sniper and that's why you didn't want him on your trail. He would use whatever resources he could and eventually he'd find you.

He stood across the street in the doorway of the closed shop and watched the large man enter the building he'd had under observation for the last two nights. Certain his prey had come to roost, Booth pushed off from the building and moved across the street. His feet silent on the asphalt, Booth moved swiftly, but cautiously. Once he was at the main entrance, he leaned over and carefully peered through the window next to the door. A light on in the distance, Booth slowly moved back to the door and using a pick-a-lock quickly unlocked the door.

Carefully, he pushed the door open and slipped inside closing and locking it behind him. Making his way down the dark hallway, he arrived at the doorway leading into a large room filled with shelves and cabinets. The industrial lights overhead bathed the room in a harsh bright light. Booth's prey was sitting at a desk in front of a computer, his back towards the door.

With a weapon in his hand, Booth stepped inside and pointed his pistol at the unaware man. "Brian Sokolov?"

Startled, Brian turned and shot to his feet. "Who the hell are you?"

Coldly, Booth stared at the man with little emotion on his face. "I'm the man whose house you tore up over five weeks ago."

Alarmed, Brian held his hands out and shook his head. "Seeley Booth? How the hell did you find out I did that?"

Finally an emotion appeared on the Agent's face and it did nothing to calm the man across the room. "I work for the FBI genius. You had to know that before you broke into my house. Before you ripped up the floor in my basement. Before you dug six holes in my back yard." His voice filled with menace, Booth's voice rose. "And before you threw an ax at my living room ceiling."

Brian swallowed and let his hands fall to his sides. "Yeah, I knew you were FBI, but what choice did I have. I had to get it back and I was told it was in your house. I had to get it back."

More than a little curious, Booth continued to point his gun at the nervous man. "What the hell was so important that you had to break into my house and tear the place up looking for it?"

Aware that the Agent was barely under control, Brian shrugged his shoulders. "You probably won't believe me, so why bother? Just arrest me and take me in. I'll come quietly."

Booth shook his head. "You're going to tell me what was so damn important that you had tear up my house."

Nervously, Brian stared at the gun pointed at him and felt a chill race down his spine. "You're not going to kill me because of what I did are you? I didn't kill anyone and I was careful not to damage anything . . . well only the floor and your back yard. I didn't take anything that belonged to you. I didn't steal anything at all. I didn't even use your bathrooms the whole time I was there. I needed to find . . . I needed to find it. I needed to find it and I didn't hurt anyone doing it."

"What the fuck is it?" Booth's patience was coming to an end. Brennan was on the run with his daughter, a psychopath was running around free murdering people and the FBI had taken his office from him because they didn't trust him anymore. He was at the end of his rope and Brian was going to pay for it if he wasn't careful. "You tell me what was so fucking important that you had to destroy parts of my house and why the fuck did you throw an ax at my ceiling . . . tell me!"

Those last two words were spoken so harshly that Brian was certain he was going to die. "My brother is a priest at The St. Nicholas Cathedral in Washington D.C. Two years ago, someone broke into the church and stole a religious icon. It was on loan from another Russian Orthodox Church, The Saint Nicholas Russian Orthodox Cathedral in New York. My brother felt responsible for the theft and he became depressed." Brian stopped and swallowed.

"He . . . he became sick and . . . and I was afraid he was going to die." Brian felt a tear escape his lashes. "I was desperate to find the icon. I searched everywhere and I finally found out that the thief who had stolen the icon brought it to the man who used to own your house. The man was a disgusting drug dealer and he would take valuable art objects in payment for drugs. He had no soul."

Brian paused to wipe the tear from his cheek. "I found out the drug dealer was in prison and one of the men that used to work for him said that the icon was buried on your property somewhere along with some other valuable art work. The drug dealer thought he could wait a few years and then try to sell them when everyone had given up looking for them, so he buried them and waited . . . I paid the flunky to go with me to your house and look for the art work. I promised he could keep whatever art work we found except for the icon. That belongs to the church."

Booth lowered he gun and stared at the man. "Why the hell didn't you just come to me and tell me this shit? We could have found a way to look for it without you doing what you did."

Ashamed, Brian lowered his head and looked at the floor. "I was afraid to trust you. Some of the art work the dealer had in his possession was worth many thousands of dollars. I needed to find that icon and return it to the church to save my brother''s life. I couldn't take a risk on your honesty. I'm sorry."

"Did you find it?" Booth knew how to read people and this man appeared to be telling him the truth. "Did you find the icon?"

Slowly Brian nodded his head and smiled a sad smile. "Yes, I did. It was buried under the concrete floor of your basement. We had looked in the back yard first, but Donny remembered that there was some kind of water line problem and he thought his boss might have moved the art work to a safer place afterward. Donny remembered that he had a contractor work in the basement for a week one time and he didn't know why. We thought that might be where the art was so we tore up the floor and that's where we found what we were looking for."

Booth stared at Brian and wondered if he should go with his gut on this one. "Why should I believe you? Where's your proof?"

Relieved that Booth was listening to him, Brian patted his pants pocket. "Let's call my brother. He's well now. Once the icon was back at the church he got his appetite back and his will to live. He can verify my story or better yet, we can get onto Skype on my PC and call him. We can talk to him face to face. He'll tell you that what I am saying is real."

Booth waved his gun at the computer behind Brian. "Go ahead."

Brian turned around, sat down and made the call. In a few moments, a priest appeared on the screen. "Brian, why are you calling me so late? You work too hard, Brother."

Not looking behind him, Brian sat in his chair and smiled at his older brother. "Hey, that icon I found for you, has it been returned to New York yet or is your church going to keep for a while longer?"

Micah smiled. "It's been returned. I just couldn't bear the thought of it being stolen again, so I returned it to its rightful home. I want to thank you again for finding it. I . . . Thank you."

"You're welcome, Micah." Brian heard the agent behind him sigh and he knew that his brother had saved his life. "It was nothing, don't worry about it."

Once the call was finished, Brian turned to face Booth only to find the man gone. Standing, he quickly left his office and raced down the hallway. Once he was out of the building, he saw Booth across the street. "Wait!" Racing across the dark street, Brian caught up with Booth. "Please, let me pay you for the damage to your house. I can afford it. I was going to send you a check in the mail for the damages, but I read in the papers about your wife's trouble and I didn't want to interfere in your lives right now."

"Bones isn't my wife." Booth spoke softly. "She's my girlfriend although she hates that term. The mess is fixed. Bones paid for it . . . why'd you throw an ax at my ceiling?"

Even though it was dark, Booth could see Brian blush a deep crimson.

"The flunky that was helping me to steal back the icon was going to steal some of Dr. Brennan's statues." Brian cleared his throat. "After we found the icon and other art work, he ran upstairs and said he had to use the bathroom. When I found him upstairs, he was stuffing statues into a pillow case. I threatened him, but he didn't take me seriously. I lost my patience and I threw the ax at the ceiling. It scared the shit out of that little mouse. He dropped the bag and ran from the house. He had all the lights on in the house looking around while I was in the basement. The little turd. Anyway, I put her statues back where I thought they belonged, ran downstairs, grabbed the icon and the other paintings and I left the house. I figured the neighbors would call the police, but I guess they didn't. I drove by the house the next day and I saw the door was still open. I was going to close it, but one of your neighbors was mowing her lawn so I left. I guess you came home that night."

Curious, Booth hooked his thumbs in his belt. "What did you do with the other paintings?"

Brian smiled. "I packaged them up and mailed them to the Metro police. I enclosed a note saying that I found them in an abandoned house, but I didn't want to be involved."

His lips pursed, Booth finally nodded his head. "I'm not sure what I was going to do to you tonight."

His mouth dry, Brian nodded his head. "I know. Thank you for listening to me and I'm really sorry I made a mess of things. I should have just come to you and told you what was going on, but my brother's life was on the line. I didn't have a lot of time to waste and I would do anything to save my brother. I love him."

"I know what you mean." Booth turned to leave.

Brian felt sad for Booth. "I'll pray for you and your family. I hope everything turns out well."

Moving down the street, Booth responded. "Thank you. I hope so too."

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I hope this was okay. Let me know what you thought of my story. Thank you.


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